Network service providers offer many network features that provide enhanced services for both the signaling and the media path for calls between two endpoints. Redirection and transcoding services are examples of these enhanced network services. Occasionally, for a variety of reasons, users may want to avoid using the network to process signaling and media messages in order to keep their communication channels completely private and transparent to the network.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for enabling peer-to-peer communication between network endpoints, e.g., VoIP network endpoints, on a per call basis in a packet network, e.g., a VoIP network.